Day Camp...or Farming 101

Every year we descend on Hovander Homestead Park in Ferndale, WA. The last week in July we hold Camp Fire Day Camp. I am the co-director. We actually spend the week in the park. Dennis (park ranger) allows us to pull in the camp trailer..where we keep the day camp supplies and watch over the day camp tents and such. What I think the Smith kids enjoy almost more then the day camp is that this park has worked at maintaining that homestead look. The original farm house and barn are still there and to add to that farm are the animals. Mychal began volunteering at this park 3 years ago. So each morning we are there..they are up early and ready to begin the farm chores with great excitement. Now my parents on the other hand...had to drag me out of bed most mornings...especially those cold Idaho mornings. I am really glad they get this experience and love it. Dennis and the other park workers enjoy the break. In fact this year on Wed morning..we woke up to discover a note on the car window.."Smith Clan, I have an early meeting this morning. I have unlocked the door for you. Dennis." So off the kids walked to the barn to load up and feed the animals. They had rabbits, pigs, goats, sheep, horses, cows, chickens, ducks, turkeys and peacocks/hens and chicks to feed. Actually the horses and cows only get a lick or two of grain. You have to call them and shake the pan and then feed them. The reason is on the occasional escape from the pasture..they can use this to call them back and they will come running back at the sound of the feed in the pan and "here horsey...horsey or cow cow. They really love this and wish we lived closer to the park it is about a 30 minute drive with no traffic issues. The thought of getting them up and there in the morning...a couple days a week. I think the excitement would soon fade. So I think we will just continue with the occasional working...they also do this when we are there for the Highland Games in June..but that is usually just one or two mornings and not all week. I should add that Zeke did learn that the electric fence really only hurts for a few seconds.

4th of July Vacation #4

Well I guess I should make one final post to tie up the loose ends of the vacation.
We really loved the RV park and it's flyer is now in our binder. We have a binder with page protectors and if we go to campground/rv park that we love and would like to visit again. We keep the information..they give you at check in. We usually will mark some other sites..in case it is the type that you can reserve a specific site. The park had a pool, that is always a hit with the kids. It was really neat that the owner had somehow managed to mow a flag design into this field. I didn't go close to look to see how he did the stars, but it was cool to see as you came driving into the park.

The park is a nice one. For a holiday weekend it was quiet even though the park was packed. There is a nice creek the runs along the back edge with a nature trail...some rough spots were it was washed out over the winter. But it was nice. There was a family of quail that darted and hid...so I didn't get any pictures.

The other fun thing we did was have those old time pictures done of the kids. I like how it is done now. The package we opted for gave us one printed picture and a disk with all the poses. We selected the one we wanted printed. They then place them all on the disk both in full color and then also in sepia. Then we have the release form to get more prints made.

We will most likely return again. I would love to make a trip there in the winter near Christmas..when all the stores have lights and are decorated for the holidays. People say it is just beautiful that time of the year, with all the snow and such. It would be a longer drive as the mountain pass that we took over this time...is one that closes it the winter.

4th of July Vacation #3

Our time in Leavenworth...
The 4th of July they have what they called the Kinderfest. It was a very small kids event. They had free popcorn, sno cones, cotton candy and apple juice. There was face painting, sidewalk art, and big inflatable thingees. There was also entertainment.
We did that part and then we went and did the tourist thing..shopping,pictures,and the museum. The museum....it was a Nutcracker one. There was a collection of 5,000 nutcrackers. You name it they most likely had one..from Snow White to Star Wars and everything in between. So here are some pictures of our day in town.

4th of July part 2

Fishing Trip...
Zeke was really wanting to fish. The campground had a creek, but it was closed to fishing. So we asked at the office of some ideas. There were two recommendations. One was the fish hatchery with certain restrictions or Fish Lake. Norm looked up Fish Lake, they had rental boats and according to his map program it was only about 18 miles away.

So we headed off...that 18 miles was how the crow flies...it was actually 38 miles. We did finally arrive and had a short wait for a pontoon boat to come back in. We didn't have any luck catching any fish. Zeke did some dock fishing also. The fish had been biting well in the morning, but we arrived in the late morning. We did get some great pictures. Kodie tried her hand a fishing and seemed to enjoy it, but really wanted to catch a fish, because penguins eat fish.

Mychal would have no part of the fishing, but she did get some sun bathing in.

It reminds me of growing up and going camping/fishing. We normally camped where we could also fish. My brother and I loved to fish. My sister loved to sun bathe.

4th of July Vacation #1

I was thinking..there is no way I can make one post about our spur of the moment mini-vacation/camping trip. You see on the weekend prior to the 4th..it dawned on me that the 4th was a Friday...3 day weekend...then wait Norm would have the 3rd off...so now we are at a 4 day weekend. So then...I was like we should go camping and not here. I mean go somewhere else..see a different part of the state. So I spent the weekend searching the internet for a campground..we had settled in on going to the Leavenworth area. I wanted to be on the sunny side of the state....NOT the west side of the Cascades. Well duh it was 4th of July weekend..not a campground with sites available. So I decide to call them on Monday afternoon. The first one I called..had a cancellation that morning...so we were set. I planned the menu, went shopping and managed to get us ready to go Thursday morning..via the RV lot. We had some warranty work done and some parts that still had to be installed. We spent the first hour in the RV place...and it has a small shopping area....remind me to never take DH into Camping World Store. He managed to spend enough there..a new Patriotic mat, to go with the new Flag lites. (Like the red, white and blue ones I already had were not good enough). We finally get back on the road and head over Stevens Pass. We arrived at Blu-Shastin RV Park and we were directed to our wonderful site. We enjoyed the first evening just hanging out..the kids went swimming and then we had Tacos and chips for dinner and smores for dessert. Here are pictures of our site and the cool field that greeted us as we turned into the park.

It's Bells Baseball

The season actually began a couple of weeks ago. But last night was our first chance to get to a home game. We have come to love out Bellingham Bells Baseball Club. The games are so much fun, with fan participation and the autographs sessions...the boys trying to get a baseball. Last night Norm and I went with Zeke and his friend Issac. This year has been especially exciting for Zeke. One of his favorite college football players is Jake Locker (a young man from Ferndale, just a bit north of us). Jake is the starting quarterback for University of Washington. This summer Jake is playing baseball for the Bells. Well Zeke was very excited for the game to end...shake Jake's hand, get him the sign the baseball and have mom take a picture. Zeke was starting to get worried that he would not get a foul ball. Well in got one..it was funny..as it bounced back off the stands and back into the field and rolled toward the dugout. Zeke was standing by the rail near the dugout. One of the players walked over picked up the ball and tossed it to Zeke. "Yipee he had his ball". Now just to wait until the end of the game to get Jake's autograph. Also for your 3rd inning entertainment. Zeke and Issac were chosen to "Dance for their Dinner". So out to the field they went..Issac was the official winner..but we did buy Zeke a dinner...so I guess it was a two for one.

Wordless Wednesday # 4

Sardis Wildlife Center